Don’t Get Stuck in a Rut…
Get out and Learn Something New!

If you ask around your friends and work colleagues you’ll be surprised how many of them are taking courses or thinking seriously about it. Occasionally the study is formal and certificated for the purposes of career development or change; but more often these days it is for enjoyment, mindstretching and personal enrichment. Hence you’ll find a postal worker enrolled on a reiki course, a shop manager studying homeopathy, a lawyer learning the basics of aromatherapy.
In our street there is a young Mum who had never been taught anything about nutrition or cooking who spends one evening a week at a cookery school where she has been learning how to prepare good healthy food for her family. She has discovered that she loves cooking and devising balanced menus so much that she will be looking for a job in catering when her kids start school. There is a retired chap too who enrolled at the local college for evening classes in two subjects – conversational Italian because he plans to visit Italy for the first time next summer and hopes to be able to converse without constant reference to a phrase book… and pottery because it is one of those things he has always longed to try and another interest which inspired his trip to Italy. He has already thrown a few simple pots and has been told that he a natural flair for it. Fantastic for a former local government officer who spent the best part of 40 years pen pushing.
Around the corner is another young Mum, a single parent of three children, who is desperate to get off benefi ts and into paid work. She has taken a series of computer courses to improve her chances as well as four GCSEs as she left school with no qualifications at all. For Lara who has never had a real job these efforts will show any prospective employer just how committed and keen she is. Another single female friend took a course in car maintenance last year because she was fed up not knowing whether her car’s quirks and problems were simple, easily remedied things or major and hugely expensive. She can drive much more confidently as a result. Another friend took a short course in traditional stone wall laying – not because he had any project in mind but because he’d always wanted to find out how to do it. He starts another week long course next week on traditional building with cob. Secretly I think he harbours dreams about buying a plot of land and self-building but as he can’t contemplate that just yet he’s learning some of the traditional skills instead.
The fantastic thing about taking courses and learning new things is that it opens up so many new possibilities. It keeps minds active and engaged. It can also be an excellent way of meeting like minded people and forming new friendships. There doesn’t have to a massive initial commitment either as there are many accessible short courses which serve as tasters for term length, residential or year long programmes. And where to start finding out what is available… Your local library is an excellent resource and will have details of many courses taking place in your area. The pages of this magazine also contain many interesting opportunities… and a web-based search which you can conduct from a library if you don’t have your own internet connection will provide many more leads. Don’t forget either that there are many home study options available too, including the Open University courses, for those who have the self-discipline and motivation to study independently. What better way to start the Autumn than to enrol on a course in a subject that you have always wanted to learn more about?